Sunday, March 16, 2008

103~ Our Engagement Party

: One of Our Grand Moments in Life :

HarmonyUs Sovereigns Engagement Party at The Palm, By Saffron


Thank God it was possible for us to have our Engagement Party on the weekend of our Engagement week thus allowing Us to have all our Celebrations bundled into one week. We just loved the idea of celebrating Our Anniversary prolonged to a week and the having it differently just couldn’t be minded. For our Engagement Party, we also had the requisite list of things we did; i.e. bookings, shopping for deco and accessories, etc. all of which were well prepared even before our Engagement Day. Hence it was only up to the actual day to set everything up.

That Saturday afternoon, once NorMala had come home from work, she met up with Syazwan; who was already at her house busy preparing the banner for the night. Then we packed all that was needed for the occasion and loaded it into our cars and planned to meet up at the location at 2pm with our relevant crew. We had booked ‘The Palm, by Saffron’ as the location for our Engagement Party. It is a perfect place for the reception, just enough space, charm and seclusion for a private HarmonyUs Sovereign Engagement Party for sixty and bands. NorMala was the first to reach there and upon her arrival, the bands and Syazwan’s BFFs were already there to offer their lending hands. We unloaded our things and the girls started with the decorations while the guys checked in to the rooms. We thought it would be great to have small sleepover amongst our group at the Hotel and besides this it would be of so much convenience to our preparations towards the event.

It was wonderful to have the restaurant close up half of its area to us in order for us to prepare everything before hand and also be helpful with setting them up. They were great service. We set up the table decorations and blew out the balloons while the band equipment was prepared. It was a sexy pink and black theme. At every black covered table sat a center piece of either pink flowers with a strawberry scented tealight or crystal runners with pink hearts confetti. And with every seat came a favor; a black covered square box tied with pink ribbon and thank you label. We also left some pink and black message notes for the guests to leave a note for the Newly Engaged couple if they had felt like it. Other decorations included the alternate pink and black balloons that were stuck on every wall. And as the main attraction; we had the pink and black banner placed at the feature wall which was later festooned with heart shaped red, silver, black and pink normal balloons. We must admit there’s no denying that we did a fine job at it, the place looked spectacular!

During the preparations, when all the table deco was set up, the girls started to progress to their saloons to get ready for the event. NorMala went to the near by Kathy Chai Saloon situated just beside the restaurant and hotel. She had her hair washed and curled ready for the big night. Syazwan was the first to finish getting ready and was the first on the welcoming scene. In his smart black suit, collared shirt and shoes and sleek pink tie; he handsomely welcomed everyone with his charm and good looks. A combination of NorMala falls weak in her knees for hehe. And as a celebrating surprise for the men, Syazwan handed out chocolate flavoured cigars from his jacket, just like a mafia god father he might add :)

A few minutes after eight, NorMala came down from her hotel room ready to join her fiancé. As a perfect king and queen who reigned the night; his lovely bride-to-be was of course perfectly matched with him. NorMala wore a black strapped pretty pink silky knee length dress that had black velvet tiny dots and patterned designs at the end. And to glamour up, she added matching black accessories and shoes. She absolutely felt like a star that night, a fame shared with her fiancé later on when camera shots started flashing as soon as they were reunited. Syazwan welcomed his beautiful fiancé and whispered how wonderful she looked; she held on to him and returned the praise. With their sincere greets and mega smiles; they escorted their guests to their placements. During this, the first band ‘Devine Intervention’, strummed their tunes and the waiters and waitresses started serving the drinks from the bar. After a while; Syazwan and NorMala took to the seats at the featured wall and enjoyed the melodious sounds played by the bands. The songs played were mixed Malay and English Love songs and both local and abroad. After the first, ‘A Band Once’ took on the performances second followed by the 'Three Act Tragedies' a rock band known to be champions of the Bruneian Battle of the Bands. The rock band was especially suited for the rockers at our party that didn’t mind waiting` til later. All the bands that played that night were brilliant, truly talented and very much appreciated for their wonderful performances.

In between the entertainment, the Newly Engaged formally greeted their guests, thanked them for coming and then invited them to start the buffet dinner. The feast included a main course of roasted chicken, fried rice, veges and noodles, then fresh fruits and orange peach punch for refreshments. They were all splendidly delicious. After everyone had finished their dinner; Syazwan and NorMala then welcomed the cake cutting ceremony. The cake was sent to their table by Syazwan’s Uncle; where some people had naughtily sung a birthday song as a joke for the couple as they cut the cake together. The smiley couple then fed each other tiny portions of the cake and sent it off to be cut for everyone to have a taste. The performances then continued throughout the night with additional surprise performances from the Newly Engaged couple.

In the first instant; when ‘A Band Once’ was playing Eric Clapton’s; ‘Wonderful Tonight’, Syazwan surprised NorMala by taking her hand for a dance. With not much option, NorMala took to the front with Syazwan and slow danced as much as she knew how hehe. She felt incredibly shy but at the same time was completely taken by Syazwan’s sweet gallantry move that tears of joy were formed. Syazwan whispered in her ear the words ‘I love you’ and strengthened his clutch holding her hand. It absolutely was Our Romantic Moment that we surely will cherish forever. After we returned to our seats and enjoyed the performances again, it wasn’t a while after that we took to the front again to perform our songs. We introduced our duet song and with many nerves kept at bay; NorMala started singing then Syazwan. Though stage stiff, we were determined to rock the song to our liking which we did do with fun, especially since it was Our Song. The song is called, ‘Shy That Way’ and was created by Fav musician couple Tristan Prettyman and Jason Mraz. We are both big fans of them. This song was introduced by Syazwan when we first got together and mostly depicts how we both love to keep things shy between Us as it leaves much to the mystery and drives us crazy in love for each other. It’s a beautiful sexy tune too. After that, Syazwan sang another song, but this time solo and most especially for his bride-to-be. It was called ‘Love Song’ made famous by 311. Having done our part there, we checked up on how our guests were doing and rotated around the floor. Then stricken eleven, everyone started to leave. Each guest, thanked Us for the invitation, dropped Us some comments to how they enjoyed the night and bid us many congratulations. With much gratitude for coming, we said goodbye. Alongside everything, we had our handy and keen, well talented photographers, C Bui (who was our Photographer for our Engagement Day) and his colleagues from CPS Photography taking our pictures, making sure we didn’t miss any memory. We took several pictures with our guests and by ourselves, inside and outdoors (including a photo of a reenactment of the HarmonyUs Sovereign Proposal. It was much like a whole photo shoot session and thus very glamourous! Hehe.

When everyone left, We and some friends stayed back to remove the decorations that we wanted to keep while Syazwan dealt with the payment. We took more pictures to end the day and returned to our Hotel Rooms for an extended party of our own which actually didn’t last too long as we were already in much exhaust.

Our HarmonyUs Sovereign Engagement Party was a success and we are very happy it turned out well. Now that all that we have wished and hoped for so far has now come true, we will wait patiently until the next time our other prayers are granted again and the already accomplished greatly treasured as Our Grand Moments Together forever.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

103~ Our 1st Year Anniversary

103 HarmonyUs Sovereigns Engagement
: We Got Engaged!!! :

With no surprise and plenty of preparation building up to this day, we are now finally getting to live this a waited moment. It was certainly very fortunate for Us to get Engaged on the very same day as Our 1st ever Anniversary which marked an excellent start for our most golden moments for life.

From the very beginning of our relationship, we had always known that we both were very serious with each other and were already at intent to seek marriage in one another despite Syazwan’s young age. We only needed time and fate to tell us when. The very first mention of an Engagement between Us came as just a mere question at first. Then, when we discussed it; NorMala hadn’t realised that Syazwan was actually being serious about it. He said that he had already made the decision to get engaged at least after a year being together. And NorMala couldn’t think of a better and more appropriate plan. We did however make more specific plans to have it after his graduation but we realized that waiting until then didn’t make more sense than having it earlier. Since we were having our 1st year Anniversary soon, we thought it would be grand to have it on the same day; we just didn’t want to waste the gloriousness of the special day.

Therefore when the time came, Syazwan waited until after his birthday to break the news of his plans to get engaged. It was his first time at asking something this important to his parents. Even though quite confident in confronting them with it, his only worry was that he didn’t have any idea to how he would start the conversation. It took him a few discussions with the entrusted before he finally came out with it to his Fam. It took two weeks to roll and come back to us with a definite agreement and we were both very delighted to hear it when it was determined for good. Thankfully there were no problems- no problems in the decision of the couple to be engaged and the tentative dates and time settled upon. It was going to be a Monday night function, a school night and also during the monthly test period for the kids; but this was a minority since the main guests were to be the elderly anyway. So gratefully enough, things were all on a go.

The preparations started with the most exciting part~ Choosing the Rings! We had secretly been scouting for the rings even before the final agreement had been made with the aim of Syazwan getting NorMala two rings; a golden one for the ‘Pembuka Mulut’ and another white gold one for ‘Bertunang’; a choice made according to NorMala’s taste. Though the male side isn’t supposed to get a ring according to our customs; but NorMala decided that she wanted to get one for Syazwan too, perhaps as just a gift symbolizing a joint sign of love. Syazwan loved the idea and got into the excitement of choosing his ring too. After many journeys to several jewelry dealers we found our Fab rings and booked them to size and date.

Next, we got our heads together and thought of possible plans for our Engagement. We made the decision to host two events namely our ‘Bertunang’ and Engagement Party with the intention of not missing anyone out. We wanted to have one event for each of our Family and Friends circles respectively. Once we dreamt up our desired Engagement receptions and with both parents consent on everything; we were never endingly busy on the go looking for the best possible deals. We made caterer orders, camp bookings, photographer bookings, accessory bookings, restaurant bookings, band bookings and what have you. And in the midst of all this; we were also doing our invitations, preparing the decorations and favors and also visiting the tailors for fittings. Indeed things would’ve been a hundred times simpler if we had everything done up to a coordinator but then again; we were persistent in having our engagement HarmonyUs Sovereign Signatured all throughout. And we really enjoyed the whole experience of working together and being hands on with everything full of our personal touches anyway, honestly it was a lot of fun! But might I warn anyone who is wishing to do the same; packing some extra patience would do a lot of good.

Counting down the days towards our engagement and as keyed up as we were, we couldn’t forget to remind each other again of our excitement to getting engaged. Be it the regular sweet texts or just the silent profound glances we manage to signal one another in secret; but as a rule we loved doing it out in the open clandestinely. Singing and dancing, having our own parties before the actual day; we were deliriously happy and as funny as it may sound; it absolutely felt like we were in a fairytale animation or bollywood movie hehe. Then reached day zero, when all that we had worked for was put to the test and the only time when everything would start to take its real form. Undeniably, the day would have to be the busiest where all the necessities were expected to arrive, to be picked up and put up. Of course there were the normal few odd problems here and there, which were obviously beyond our control like timing and rain right before Syazwan’s entourage arrival; but then again there were just as many miracles that night too. One instant is how the rain magically disappeared the second they prepared to leave for NorMala’s house. Thankfully, everything went down harmoniously right.

Indoors, NorMala was busy getting dressed and prepared for her entrance in the hall. But this didn’t omit the occurrence of a small merry soiree enjoyed with her closest friends and colleagues which with much appreciation accompanyed and delightfully entertained her during the wait. Though this was enough to aid her nerves at calm, NorMala remained close to Syazwan by being well in contact with him through their cells. In our patience; we eagerly waited until the signal for the entrance. NorMala was to exit her room with an elder escort along with three young maidens that bared gifts for Syazwan’s side and make her way to the hall where the females were located. In her sweet pastel pink French laced self designed and tailored modern baju kurung; NorMala demurely made her entrance by carefully making her way down the steps of the stairs and on to her seat at the white golden beaded square consecrated mattress. Within the slowed minutes of her entrance, detailed close attention could not possibly have been ignored. NorMala’s dress had red, blue and yellow beaded accents with a compromised youthful matching veil that sat trailed on her shoulders and it was uniquely adorned with an ivory bronze floral tiara at top. She received many lovely comments on how she looked that night; one of which also included her looking like a fairy, a perfect suit to her flutter of happiness in the enchanted otherworldly enfold.

As soon as the discussion amongst the elders had dwindled down to the switching of bared gifts from either side, NorMala received her Rings along with a bowl of assorted ‘Harmony’ Chocolates. Then on behalf of Syazwan, the mother of the groom-to-be; Syazwan’s Mother, slipped them on to her left and right forth fingers respectively to seal the agreement. NorMala then enthused around the room to shake her guests’ hands with many thanks and plenty chit chat prior to the function proceeding to dining. NorMala took some pictures before greeting her guests’ goodbye and waited for Syazwan to come over and take more pictures with her.

Syazwan at home, stayed indoors with his closest friends too. They played ps games while waiting for the entourage to return home. When they did, they immediately handed his gifts from NorMala. It was a ring, a cake and a tray of assorted traditional sweets made of rice and herbs. His Mother slipped his Ring on for him and they cut the cake and gave out the sweets to taste. It took Syazwan a while to finally make his way to NorMala’s place but as soon as he did; We took pictures during Our own moment of exchanging the Rings. Later, We enjoyed our first dine together as fiancés devouring our catered dishes and finally ended the day chatting and watching the recorded clip of Our Engagement with NorMala’s Fam.

The HarmonyUs Sovereigns Exchange of Rings

Star Light Star bright,
The first star I see tonight,
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have the wish I wish tonight.


For what a wonderful night it was, A Holy bond witnessed underneath the Luna moon and glittering stars, with our loved ones to rejoice, and a great pleasure for Us to share, May Our Almighty protect and persist our HarmonyUs Sovereigns as one until their nuptials be said and forever after. Amin! :D